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8 The reader need hardly be reminded that in the New Testement "grace" (Lat. Gratia, Gk. xarij) signifies "a free gift."
10 S. Luke ix. 10. Between this and the next chapter some of the mss. And the earlier editions insert a passage from Augustine's Enchiridion, which thus formed chapter iv.
11 A reminiscence of Phil. ii. 21.
12 Plebem: this being the regular term for the "Laity" in early Christian Latin.
2 Sacerdotii see note 5 on Letter 1.
3 Though no doubt S. Leo's language is here harsh and offensive to modern ears, it is not. I think, substantially out of agreement with S. Paul's own teaching (cf. Philemon: 1 Cor. vii. 21; or Ephes vi. 5; Col. iii. 22; Tit. ii. 9), and certainly not with th spirit of the age. The 73rd Apost. Canon forbids any slave to be ordained without his master's consent, and without previously obtaining his freedom. However, in the times of S. Jerome S. Basil and S. Greg. Nazianzen, we find cases of slaves being ordained. However much we in the latter half of the nineteenth century regret to hear a great father of the Church speak in this way we must not forget that In the first half of this self-same century the very same opinion would have been bold on the subject in many parts of the civilized world.
4 Qui originali (al. Origini) aut alicui condicioni obligati sunt. The class of people alluded to were the coloni (serfs): such of them as were so by birth were called originarii and there were other classes of them also (alicui condicioni obligati). The essential difference between all coloni and the ordinary servi was that the latter's service was personal. the former were servi terroe, adscripti glaeboe. Thus there is a strong resemblance between them and the villeins (villani) of medieval and modern Europe. For the order concerning them here given, cf. 2nd Council of Orleans (538), which ordains "ut nullus servilibus colonariisque condicibus obligatus iuxta statuta sedis Apostolicoe ad honeres ecclesiasticos admittatur nisi prius aut testamento aut per tabulas legitime constiterit absolutum.
5 1 Tim. iii, 2, unius uxoris virum with the Vulgate, cf. Letter xii.
6 Lev. xxi. 13, 14, cf. a letter of Innocent I. to Victricius bishop of Rothomagus (Rouen) chap. v., ut mulierem (viduam) clericus non ducat uxorem: quia scriptum est: sacerdos virginem uxorem accipiat non eiectam," and for the former quotation, cf. Ibid. chap vii. Ne is qui secundam duxerit uxorem, clericus fiat: quia scriptum est unius virum. The 18th Apostolic Canon gives a similar order. All these rules would seem to refer to marriage before, not after, ordination. The latter was against the spirit of the early Church.
7 The older editions here add pro arbitrio (by dispensation). which Quesnel considers a gloss added later when dispensation was sometimes granted to digamous clerks.
8 The practice of usury and trading generally is often forbidden In the Canons, &c., for the clergy, but its Prohibition for the laity is much more unusual: cf., however, Canon V. of the Council ofCarthage (4 19), quod (sc. Fenus accipere in laicis, reprehenditur id multo magis debet et in clericis praedamnari. Scripture certainly is against the clergy participating in lucrative employments, though it was not easy always to prevent them: it had become, for Instance. a common practice in S. Cyprian's day in the North African Church (cf. de laps. 6). But the secular laws certainly countenanced it in the laity (As Aug. Ep. 154 acknowledges). Leo the Emperor is said by Crotius to have been the first who "existimans omne fenus Christiano interdictum, lege id ipsum communi sanxit"(Quesnel).
9 Crimen suum commodis alienis impendere.I am not sure that this can mean what I say.
10 This was S. Innocent 1.. who was Pope from 402 to 417. One of his decretal letters was quoted from in note 1 to chap. iii. Of this Letter.
1 The letter to the college of bishops was written the same day, and forms No. 5 in the Leonine series(in Migne).
2 Sacerdotum here obviously = episcoporum, see Letter 1. note 5.
3 quibus sermone epistolis mutuo commeant bus sociamur. notice the interlaced order of the words in the sentence which is not, I think, without design as quaintly expressing his meaning.
5 Siricius was Bishop of Rome 384-398. Damasus, 366-384, is said by Innocent 1. to have been the first to do this but not like Siricius, "acting on a fixed method," certa quadam ratione.
6 Proedecessoris tui. Anysius is said to have lived on into the time of Innocent. Anastasius' immediate predecessor, selected by Innocent (decessoris tui in the next line), was named Rufus.
7 These words are not found in the mss. apparently, but are necessary to the sense. For the requirement cf. Letter IV. chapter iii.
8 Here the word is antistes and no doubt it signifies "bishop," as the next sentence clearly shows.
9 The organization of the province then included(1)the bishops under (2) metropolitans of district under (3) one supreme primate of the province, who was in his turn responsible to the Bishop of Rome.
11 The word is as, aspiraverit (the notion of which is to favour), not inspiraverit (to Inspire), as we might have expected.
13 Circa quos par consecratio fieri debet. I take this as a valuable statement in the mouth of Leo, who so seldom refers specifically to the lower orders of the ministry.
14 There seems to be no canon on the point before Leo's time: but he alludes to the tradition again in Letter IX. Chap. 1 and CXI. Chap. 2 (q.v.).